Western Alarm Corporation

Western Alarm Corporation was the early incarnation of Western Signal Corporation and a siren manufacturer in existence from 1905 to 1943.

History
Western Alarm was founded in Ironwood, Upper Michigan as a metal distributor and product manufacturer by the name of Western Metalworks in 1875 by George Maxwell and brothers Michael and Nathan Grinnell who were related to Frederick Grinnell. In 1905 Western Metalworks was granted a contract to manufacture outdoor warning sirens as a replacement for bells; as a result Western Metalworks then split into three separate companies. The Western Alarm Corporation was founded in 1903 as a subsidiary of Western Metalworks in Hancock and by 1911, began manufacturing and selling electrically operated mechanical sirens. As a result, Western Alarm had a new siren facility in Rochester by the mid 1910's. Western also introduced sirens in the early 1920s which were mostly simple single headed vertical or simple dual headed horizontal sirens. Most single headed models came with a louvered shroud which protected the siren's chopper and motor from weather in a similar vein to a Fedelcode/Federal siren. Many Western Alarm sirens were installed across the United States. They saw good sales in the early years and were praised for their simple but effective sirens. Unfortunately Western Alarm did not survive despite this strong beginning.

Two years after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, a metal shortage had caused Western Alarm to split off nearly most of their siren business into a new division called Western Siren Solutions to continue production of their simple design siren models. During this restructuring, Western Alarm went defunct and was replaced with Western Enterprises in order for the company to diversify into more complex models, intended to suit the needs of individual municipalities.

List of Sirens

 * Western Alarm Type 15-SDH (Most well known model)
 * Western Alarm Type 7-USH (Known for "Flying saucer" design)